Ibelin, or Sir Ibelin Redmoore, was the digital avatar of Mats Steen, a Norwegian video gamer diagnosed with a terminal illness early in life. Ibelin and Mats Steen are now the focus of a documentary titled The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, which was recently acquired and presented by Netflix on October 25.
About a decade ago, Mats Steen passed away aged twenty-five after succumbing to Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He was first diagnosed with the illness at age four and had to use a wheelchair by the time he was ten years old. Throughout his life, Mats Steen was confined and isolated by his physical limitations.
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His parents, Robert and Trude Steen, were forever under the impression that their son had led a barely social existence until they discovered his digital life in the world of a game called World of Warcraft. They eventually discovered that despite being tied to his wheelchair, Mats had reached out to numerous people and both inspired and cherished his memories in the digital domain as Ibelin.
The documentary has been assembled from VHS home recordings, transcripts of online chats, text messages, and dramatic reconstruction.
Mats Steen lived a fulfilling life as Ibelin
Like most other parents, Robert and Trude Steen often looked down on their son's indulgence in video games. According to a report by The Guardian, Robert and Trude Steen mentioned that the prevailing culture in Norway encourages children to spend their time outdoors engaging in physical activity-based sports, to the extent that a child isn't considered fully Norwegian if they can't climb a tree.
A report by The Independent mentioned that Mats often sought his parents' encouragement for his digital world, but Robert and Trude thought video games were boring. However, the digital world proved to be a comforting escape to Mats, and he went on to have a rich and eventful life within the universe of World of Warcraft, where he used his alias.
Following Mats' death on November 18, 2014, Robert, Trude, and their daughter Mia got together to grieve in his memory. They then thought of letting Mats' digital acquaintances know about his death, which they eventually did by accessing Mats' blog. They wrote:
"Our beloved son, brother and best friend left us this night..."
They had expected that the note would go largely unnoticed. However, it received immense attention, and soon, Robert's inbox was flooded with emails from Mats' digital gaming friends describing how significant Mats had been in their lives.
Director Benjamin Ree opens up about Ibelin
Benjamin Ree directed the Netflix documentary about Ibelin, which took him four years to finish. He was drawn to Mats' life after learning about it from his erstwhile teacher, who also happened to be a family member of the Steens. Speaking to Time magazine about his vision of the documentary, Ree stated:
"They wanted to know their son better, because they were still going through the grieving process, but also re-evaluating who their son really was. My pitch to them was that I wanted everyone to be invited into this world. I had never played World of Warcraft before and I wanted to present it in a way that my 94-year-old grandmother would feel included."
The documentary is exclusively available on Netflix.
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